Four members of the Middleton Hunt (UK) pled guilty to charges under the Hunting Act. Video footage taken by the League Against Cruel Sports was shown to the Magistrate’s Court showing the men bolting a fox from a pile of round bales. The fox was immediately run down by hounds and killed.

Although admittedly an unsporting way to kill a fox, if the fox had been shot and killed upon being bolted from the round bales, no offence would have occurred. If the fox had been shot but only wounded while making its escape, only to die after suffering its wounds for a day or more, no offence would have occurred. Such are the terms of the Hunting Act under which foxhunters in the UK must abide.

The four men were fined by the court. Click to read Dan Bean’s complete article in The Press.